Could have been great, it's a pity

Rating: 6/10 (21 July 2004)

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In my opinion Boyle tried to make one single movie out of Romero's Living Dead Trilogy, you have most of the themes and ideas explored in these cult classics such as a society destroying its predecessor, the military base, the characters helping themselves in shops...etc. The problem is that Boyle never really develops any of these ideas as Romero did. He talks of the uselessness of money and criticizes mass consumerism but seems to completely forget about this idea when the second part of the movie starts. As soon as the characters are taken into custody by the army he completely forgets his first message and criticizes martial law and other things. Although there are many good ideas in the movie I just get the feeling that Boyle got most of the ideas while watching the Living Dead movies.
An other major problem with this flick is that it really lacks character development. Firstly there aren't many characters who survive throughout the story and you don't really identify to them. Secondly the back up characters such as Hanna really lack presence, you don't have a clue who she is and what she's like. The army men are empty shells and Franck who is the best secondary character dies in the middle of the movie.
I give it a 6/10 because the directing and visuals are good and because there was quite a lot of potential to the film.